European Sovereignty Monitor

Defence and space

Von der Leyen pledges a European Defence Union in re-election guidelines

Presenting her re-election guidelines to Parliament on 18 July 2024, Ursula von der Leyen made defence a priority, pledging a "European Defence Union" and a white paper on European defence within the new Commission's first 100 days.

Reported Opinion Editor-read European Parliament Research Service briefing on von der Leyen's Political Guidelines 2024-2029, 18 July 2024

What the source does not establish. It does not itself create any defence fund, law or Commissioner post; those depend on the Commission actually formed later.

Index score. This item is dated before the index starts on 1 January 2026, so it does not count in the European Sovereignty Index.

How this item was made. Drafted by an AI system (Claude (Anthropic)) from the source cited above; read and approved by the editor on 2026-11-06. How the record is made

What the tags mean: VerifiedReportedAI-draftedAI-drafted, editor-readHuman-writtenWhat the tags mean

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